This invention relates to the field of orthodontics, and in particular to what I refer to as a charger/dispenser for facilitating the handling of small, unitary collections of sprue-bome, orthodontic, elastomeric O-ring ligators.
Orthodontic O-ring-like elastomeric ligators have been around now for roughly twenty years, and during that time period this field has seen many advances which relate to the ways in which such ligators are carried and/or presented for handling. For example, various dispensing and handling techniques, apparatuses and arrangements are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,903,601 to Anderson et al. (ligators formed in an elongate chain), 4,038,753 to Klein (ligators carried on the sides of an elongate sprue-like member), 4,330,271 to Anderson (disclosure similar to that found in the '753 patent), 5,016,756 to Klein et al. (ligators formed on the sides of an elongate wand), 5,221,033 to Klein et al. (ligators formed in an elongate chain), and 5,326,260 to Klein et al. (small grouping of ligators formed as a "six-pack" carried on opposite sides of a T-shaped, central, sprue-like wand).
The present invention, as illustrated herein, pertains, generally, to the handling of six-pack-like groupings of sprue-bome ligators very much like what is shown in the above-mentioned '260 patent. While the handling of six-pack-like ligator groupings is chosen for illustration in this disclosure, the invention is not confined, of course, and as will become apparent, to the handling only of such groupings. Nevertheless, orthodontists have found that a very convenient grouping of ligators is one that contains about six to a group, and thus it is in relation to handling this convenience-recognized grouping that the features of the present invention are described and illustrated herein.
Regarding the handling of such ligators, a recent fad-like phenomenon which principally focuses on aesthetics rather than on performance is that elastomeric O-rings are being requested, and accordingly manufactured, in a wide variety of brilliant, almost luminescent colors which cause them to be highly visible when in place on a patient. Oddly enough, while, in early years, patients wearing orthodontic apparatus were somewhat embarrassed by how these things looked, it is today quite the rage, particularly among very young patients, to put on, so-to-speak, a rainbow display of colors. Thus, it would be typical for a patient to ask an orthodontist to install not just ligators of a single color, but ligators of many many colors.
Accordingly, multiple color choices in elastomeric ligators have injected a tremendous boost to orthodontics, in that an element of visual fun has been introduced. The concept has arisen that these appliances are or can be viewed not as unsightly things, but rather as something more in the category of custom jewelry.
However, keeping track of such small groups of multi-colored ligators is a bit of a problem, and although it is certainly amusing for the patient to be able to specify and be able to display multiple colors of ligators, for the orthodontist, keeping track of these and handling and manipulating them is quite time consuming, and can be confusing. Additionally, it takes a fairly high degree of visual and tactile coordination, for example, to grasp just the "tire portion" of tiny O-ring ligators with a hemostat, and this can present the issues (1) that if you get too much, you tend to block the open portion of a ligator, and (2) if you get too little, it might tear or come loose from a hemostat's grip.
The present invention deals with all of these matters in a highly satisfying and simple manner.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, what is provided thereby is a rigid, elongate, bar-like body which has been formed in such a fashion that it can frictionally and releasably receive and grip a collection (four in the preferred embodiment illustrated and described herein) of T-bar-like, sprue-bome six-packs of ligators, each of which may be a different color. As will become apparent from the description which follows below, gripping occurs frictionally between surface structure which forms part of the bar-like body and surface structure in the central sprue which holds ligators. This device, which preferably is formed of a suitable molded plastic material that can be conventionally sterilized for repeated use, is formed with specially sized, spaced and shaped void spaces, or recesses, which act to guide the jaw of a hemostat so that the beaks in that jaw properly and fully grip the tire of each ligator without occluding the central open space therein. The device proposed by the invention thus conveniently organizes a collection of ligators in a manner that promotes easy handling, manipulation and dispensing by an orthodontist.
At one end of the device, as proposed in accordance with a preferred embodiment thereof, there is provided a double-tined, fork-like protrusion (plucking element) which can be used to pick up, for example, a loose sprue-borne ligator six-pack from a work surface or from a box containing a plurality of such things.
The device of the invention further includes a handle through which extends an opening that allows multiple like devices to be hung, for example, on a supporting rail. The sides of the outer ends of these handles are formed, as can be seen when viewed from the ends, with a very slight, laterally outwardly converging taper that just about exactly matches the angle formed in the open jaw of a hemostat when such is opened the amount that would be required to use the hemostat to grip the device. Thus, an orthodontist, without having physically to touch such a device in the process of freeing one for use from a hanging collection of multiple ones of these devices, can do so with a sterilized hemostat which leaves intact the sterility of neighboring devices in a hanging collection.
Various other features and advantages that are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.